Reality of Words: The Relation between Symbol and Meaning

An interesting fact about the meaning of words is the compulsion to perceive them; when we encounter a symbol, we perceive its meaning without the least mental effort. In this paper, I have tried to answer the question “How does the meaning of a word impose itself on us?” and in this way, find an answer to the question “How does a symbol become meaningful and what is the meaning of a symbol?” Here, by emphasizing the time when we have an understanding of a word, I introduce the reality of words versus the language convention, which is a historical issue. Then, by distinguishing between giving meaning to words and their having a meaning, I seek to show how, just like a reality, a word has a function appropriate to its unique character. We replace an independent entity called meaning with this function of understanding. Eventually, by distinguishing between the language act and the speaker’s act, I try to show that the creative aspect of language is related to the layer of the language act rather than the speaker’s act.